Trivia / Hocus Pocus

• Actor-Inspired Element: Bette Midler herself had a hand in Winifred's wig and makeup design, as she wanted her appearance to evoke the Queen of Hearts. This is why Winnie sports rosy red cheeks and a distinctively heart-shaped hairstyle.
• Actor-Shared Background: Zig-zagged; Sarah Jessica Parker's ancestor Esther Elwell was accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.
• Adored by the Network: In 2016, the Freeform network's annual 13 Nights of Halloween line-up became an all-out Hocus Pocus lovefest; the channel played it every day during those two weeks, at different parts of the day. If you haven't figured it out by now that Hocus Pocus is a cult phenomenon, well...
  • In 2019, the 31 Nights of Halloween allotted even more time for it, culminating in it being scheduled to air five times, back-to-back, on Halloween day.
    • For being themed around Halloween, this movie gets a remarkable amount of airplay during the rest of the year, often for no apparent reason at all.
• Blooper: In the prologue, Emily's actress can be seen fidgeting in her chair for a bit after her character had already been killed by the witches while they're celebrating their newly acquired youth.
• The Cast Showoff: With Bette Midler as a main character, they were naturally going to have the witches do a musical number. (Sarah Jessica Parker was no slouch, either.)
• Channel Hop: Garris and Kirschner pitched the idea to Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment; Spielberg saw Disney as a competitor to Amblin in the family film market at the time and refused to co-produce a film with his "rival."
• Completely Different Title:
  • Latin America and Brazil: Abracadabra
  • Portugal: Three Crazy Witches
  • Slovenia: The Witches Are Coming Back
  • Spain: Return of the Witches
  • Taiwan: Witches Are Crazy Too
• Corpsing: Vinessa Shaw claims she couldn't stop laughing when Dani says "a virgin lit the candle" - as Thora Birch kept pulling her witch's hat over her eyes.
• Creator's Favorite: Bette Midler said that this was her all-time favorite role. As a hammy, Shock and Awe leader of a witch coven with a catchy song, it's easy to see why. Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy enjoyed working on it too, and for years all three said they would be happy to return for a sequel if one ever got made. Wish granted.
• Cut Song: At one time, the song by Roxette, "Almost Unreal", was going to be used for the film in the end credits (hence "hocus pocus" in the lyrics). However, thanks to a bit of Executive Meddling, it didn't make the cut, and ended up on the soundtrack for another Disney film (albeit an outside production distributed by Hollywood Pictures), the live-action film adaptation of Super Mario Bros., instead. Ironically, an ad for this film's then-upcoming VHS release appeared in the beginning of the original VHS of Super Mario Bros.
• The Danza: Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah Sanderson.
• Dawson Casting: An opposite case for this trope. The opening scene of the film's sequel Hocus Pocus 2 is set in 1653 on Winifred 16th birthday, having been born in 1637. She was hanged in 1653 at the age of 56 in the opening scene of the original film. Bette Midler was 47 years old when the first movie was filmed.
• Deleted Scene: Many, but few have been released in the film's 30 year history. A couple did appear on the anniversary Blu-ray, but they were silent and superimposed in the corner of the screen while the movie played.
• Edited for Syndication: Modern airings of the film on ABC Family and Freeform are subject to Credits Pushback, cutting out the entire post-ending section in the process.
• Executive Meddling:
  • When the film was being developed in the mid-1980s, it was intended to be much darker, and the young leads were all 12-year-olds. Subsequent rewrites lightened the tone and made two of its protagonists into teenagers.
  • The studio also requested that the cat model used for Binx be re-designed. The initial model was more realistic, and they were worried the fangs and teeth might be too scary. The fangs were made shorter to make him cuter and more appealing.
  • The studio also felt that Sean Murray's voice sounded too contemporary for a character who lived in the 1600s, so his voice for Binx (in both his human and cat forms) was dubbed over by Jason Marsden.
  • The film was released in July because Disney wanted to attract kids out of school for summer vacation and that releasing it in the fall would hurt its chances at the box office. Besides, Disney already had The Nightmare Before Christmas slated as their October release and didn't want any box office competition.
• Fake Brit: Jason Marsden (American) puts on an English accent for Binx.
• Fake Nationality: The three White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Sanderson sisters are played by two Ashkenazi Jews and an Arab Catholic.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • France: Hocus Pocus: The Three Witches
• Hey, It's That Place!: The fountain from the Friends opening can be seen when Alison and Dani dance after apparently burning the sisters to death in the kiln.
• Inspiration for the Work: Producer David Kirschner came up with the idea for the film one night. He and his young daughter were sitting outside and his neighbor's black cat strayed by. Kirschner invented a tale of how the cat was once a boy who was changed into a feline three hundred years ago by three witches.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Two of the trailers include four deleted scenes that aren't in the film.
  • Mary and Sarah pushing Winnie into the school’s pool followed by them pointing at each other exclaiming “She did it!”
  • The witches being surrounded by greedy trick or treaters who take candy crows from them in a deleted subplot.
  • Mary squirting witch hazel in her mouth and Winnie dragging her out of a supermarket when she tries to kidnap a child.
  • The witches meeting up with Billy after he fails to capture the kids, with Winnie complaining of his foul stench.
• Orphaned Reference: A reference to one of the deleted scenes is kept in the film: After being resurrected, Mary says to Winnie “I knew I left this cauldron on, didn’t I tell you?” despite that exchange never happening in the film. It occurred in a deleted scene when the witches are about to be hanged Mary verbally wonders if she left the cauldron on and asks the people of Salem to allow her to go back inside to handle it. They don’t.
• Prop Recycling: At one time the directors wanted to buy many of the Halloween costumes for the adult costume party, but the wardrobe department had run out of money, so they had to pull the outfits from the Walt Disney costume department.
• Real-Life Relative: "The Master" and his wife are played by (uncredited) real-life siblings Garry and Penny Marshall.
• Saved from Development Hell: Disney bought the script in 1984, then sat on the project for eight years. The original title was Disney's Halloween House and was supposed to be much darker and scarier. Rumors that Disney considered turning it into a made-for-TV movie at one point have spread over the Internet, but have not been confirmed by the cast and crew.
• Screwed by the Network: Disney infamously released the film in July, despite it being a Halloween movie, which was likely a big reason for it becoming a Box Office Bomb (to say nothing of the fact that it was up against Jurassic Park). They evidently warmed up to it eventually, leading to the film playing constantly on Disney-owned television networks every Halloween throughout the 2000s.
• Throw It In!: Originally, the script had Billy call Winifred a "bitch", but his actor Doug Jones knew that the language would make him feel uncomfortable (he's very religious, and doesn't like to swear), so he had to improvise (right after he got the live moths out of his mouth by a knife) with the "wench", "trollop" and "buck-toothed, mop-riding firefly from hell" line, which the directors were impressed by.
• Vindicated by Cable: A box office flop dumped in theaters well before Halloween to distance it from The Nightmare Before Christmas, the film was rediscovered through annual airings on ABC Family/Freeform (see Adored by the Network) that generated a strong fanbase. By 2020, Disney was treating it as just as much of a Halloween classic as Nightmare; in October, both films were given splashy theatrical re-releases amidst the dearth of new films during the COVID-19 Pandemic, with Hocus Pocus even managing to score the #2 slot at the box office. It also proved a seasonal powerhouse on Disney+, spending most of October 2020 in the #2 "Trending" slot between The Simpsons and Nightmare.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A filmed but deleted subplot from the film involved the witches using candy crows to lure children. Thackery would have found a candy crow on his sister's pillow originally indicating she’d been lured away. The witches would have visited a supermarket to get ingredients to make some for their plan to lure all of Salem’s children. This would have also involved a scene of them being surrounded by dozens of trick or treaters who grab the candy crows from them. This explains why Max and Allison are not in a trance when Sarah sings to the children of Salem. Some shots from those scenes appeared in some trailers.
  • The casting director's other choice for Thackery was Leonardo DiCaprio. He chose not to do it because it was too family-friendly, and ended up getting Oscar nominated in What's Eating Gilbert Grape the same year.
  • Jennifer Lopez auditioned for the role of Sarah Sanderson. Christine Baranski, Joan Cusack, and Carol Kane were also considered
  • Cloris Leachman was the producers' first choice to play Winifred. Kristin Griffith, Samantha Mathis, Rocio Banquells, and Diane Keaton were also considered.
  • Rosie O'Donnell was originally set for the role of Mary, but she felt too reluctant to play a scary character and turned it down. Donna Murphy and Anne Meara were also considered.
  • James Horner was originally supposed to score the film but pulled out due to scheduling conflicts and recommended John Debney to score the film (after Rachel Portman turned it down). Horner still composed Sarah's theme ("Come Little Children") for the film and is credited.
  • Alison was supposed to spend the whole film in her Halloween costume. Both Vinessa Shaw and the costume designer argued that it would be impossible for her to do so much running and fighting in a 17th century party dress, so producers had Alison change into normal clothes after she leaves the house.
• Word of God: Binx was not able to speak until the Black Flame Candle was lit - hence he couldn't tell his parents who he was or warn Max not to light the candle. Jason Marsden has offered a different explanation, though: that Binx needed years to re-learn how to talk after being transformed.
• Working Title: Disney's Halloween House.

---